Thursday 16 January 2014

Posts I made, some friends made, some commented, and I did too. In chronological order, latest one on top going back. Kind of quaint to go through some announcements, some predictions. many questions raised some answered some not.

I am thankful to all who participated in my Facebook Tech Corner page, particularly to Viral Thakkar who started this thing.

Hope we all have a great 2014 full of interesting gadgets and stories with them.

If only Avid editors took time to go over these and actually use them for ads, music videos, corporates to do online on the same timeline they edit. They can save their clients online charges on Smoke. And pocket that money for themselves.

Macworld Lab ran a series of tests on a new 8-core Mac Pro, and if you're using professional software for high-end tasks, you'll like the results.

The really surprising result amongst these readings, is how good the iMac and particularly the newest retina MacBook Pro is. I mean, why would you want an older MacPro any more. Just wait for the new MacPro to arrive, or settle for an iMac.

I have a few shots which are 1920x1080 25p. Footage is converted to Pro Res LT. I need to slow them down to 50%. Can you suggest a good workflow? Is Twixtor my best option Should I do it on my MBP or a faster windows machine if on windows then what should I covert it to initially? — with Neil Sadwelkar.

December 21 at 2:44am

Neil Sadwelkar Motion has a rather good smooth optical flow slow motion.

WHY would a DCP play outsync in some Theatres when it is fine elsewhere?The whole thing is 5 to 6 frames off at times. Its so pissing off.

December 14 at 10:46pm

Neil Sadwelkar There's nothing in a DCP play out server that adjusts audio-video sync. And there's no likelihood of any device in the chain that can cause a 5-6 frame audio lag. Could be that DCPs were made by different facilities for different theatres. And some didm;t place the audio correctly with video.

December 15, 2013 at 2:04pm

Farooq Hundekar but i too faced the same problem on a film.. the dcp seemed off by 3-4 frames throughout while the print of the same was perfectly fine.. and the screening was dun in the lab for both...

December 15, 2013 at 2:08pm

Farooq Hundekar and the lab din have a solution to it

December 15, 2013 at 2:11pm

Aditya Warrior The dcp was made in 2 diff labs for comparison and shown in the same theatre. 1 was lesser out sync than the other. But yet it was out. As Neil says in the chain it's not possible. That is why the question has arisen.

December 15, 2013 at 2:31pm

Neil Sadwelkar In most DCP authoring softwares one imports the picture (DPX/TIFF/MOV) and sound (WAV) separately. If picture and sound are delivered with different lengths of leader, the operator needs to set an offset for the sound. If this is calculated incorrectly, the DCP will be out of sync. And will play out of sync too.

If one sees an out sync DCP in a cinema one test could be to play some other DCP in the same cinema - a trailer or an ad.

original rushes - AVCHD, down converted to AVI for minimizing the volume. total no. of clips (files) - around 200. total down converted volume - under 1 gb. software - adobe pro CS3. while importing the files, after 75 files it imports only audio. is it max. number of clips that I can import or is there any other problem?

December 8 at 6:33pm

Jay Dantara Just thinking out aloud... Does this occur if you import the clips in random order also? All the clips are OK outside the edit software? Did you try importing in different sequence settings and different projects? Did you try it on another system? Are you on windows or Mac? If on Mac then rather convert them to QuickTime container. (QT).

December 9 at 2:29pm

Shrirang Nargund thanks Jay for the valid questions. am on windows8, laptop. have tried in random order. all clips are playing perfectly ok outside the software. tried by opening different new projects.

I have to do an edit soon and I have a variety of formats, aspect ratios and frame rates that I need to work with. I know how each works as a workflow but I'm a little confused as to how to go about combining all of this. I'll do my own tests soon but if anyone has ever combined all of this before, some pointers would be helpful. The following are what I need to work with.

Neil Sadwelkar What is the final output spec? HD/SD/DCP? At 24/25/29.97 fps? That will dictate your editing format.

December 5, 2013 at 4:34pm

Sourya Sen HD. For web - so the final frame rate is flexible. If there's one that has an advantage over the other, then I'll go for that.

December 5, 2013 at 4:45pm

Sourya Sen Oh and I also have some 5DMkIII at 1080p 25fps.

December 5, 2013 at 4:45pm

Ashish Heblekar Neil Sadwelkar I know this is a nightmare but you are the only one who can give us a possible solution. Will explain the backstory of all these mixed formats when we meet in person.

Also any idea if this should be edited on Premiere and not FCP?

December 5, 2013 at 5:02pm

Sourya Sen Has to be Premiere I'm guessing. My solution at the moment is getting proxies out of the RAW clips via Resolve Lite - mixing it w/ native Red and FS700 on the Premiere timeline (need to figure what frame rate to work on) - once the final edit is done, export XML of the RAW separately to take to Resolve to grade and grade the FS and RED on Premiere/Speedgrade.

Bear in mind, the post workflow is a bit tedious. If you're the impatient, not methodical type, avoid magic lantern raw. Also, the raw video may or may not work with 'higher' forms of post machines - Smoke, Quantel, Baselight. Resolve works.

Neil Sadwelkar You don't have to do it through Teranex. You can do it with software too. Teranex is when you have large amounts of tape based SD media which needs up-conversion in real time.

November 17, 2013 at 10:06am

Angshuman Ghosh Sorry, failed to mention it is tape based. Is hardware up conversion better than software? Negligible difference? Or on a case by case basis?

November 17, 2013 at 2:13pm

Neil Sadwelkar After up-conversion what's the output you need? HD tape? Or HD file? If HD tape then you need Teranex. If file, then use software convert. What's the quantity, and time available?

November 17, 2013 at 8:46pm

Angshuman Ghosh Most likely master as an HD file (unless otherwise required for a theatrical). The rushes are on NTSC MiniDV Tapes, about 50 hours. All don't need to be upconverted, just the picture lock, except there is no TC sync, only eye matching most probably. Still software?

Is it 'old school' to have long shots and close-ups from the same scene match in lighting. Meaning, look like they happened in the same place and time?

Is it 'old school' to hold the camera steady during a shot?

Is it 'old school' to avoid on axis cuts?

Is 'axis' even relevant in cinema any more?

I wonder.

November 24 at 11:31am

Darpan Ashokrao Salunkhe Old School still Runs... No Wonder !

November 24, 2013 at 11:35am

Ashutosh Nandkumar Books and experiment manuals can be new, but for school, the older the better.

November 24, 2013 at 11:42am

Viral Desai Sir if the drama is spot on do these things really matter? I wonder.

November 24, 2013 at 11:44am

Priyadarshini Krishnaswamy thank you...

November 24, 2013 at 12:30pm

Nikhil Idurkar Western cinema still holds an influence. Must confess.

November 24, 2013 at 1:59pm

Jabeen Merchant The people who use that phrase the most usually never went to any school!

November 25, 2013 at 10:58am

Utsab Bandopadhyay I follow a simple mantra" learn the rules and respect them and then make your own rules". But its the story which is the deciding factor for choosing a visual treatment that determines the visual narrative flow that makes you chose old skool film makin...

November 25 at 2:16pm

Neil Sadwelkar "grammar for cares as who thoughts long as conveyed are"

can be understood if you read it a couple of times. That's exactly cinema where grammar and rules aren't followed. But cinema audiences don't always have the liberty of repeated viewing.

Anyone clamouring to shoot on F65 but can't get their hands on one should take a look at the F55. Smaller, lighter, easier data handling, and affordable. You can afford to even buy it if you're looking at 150 days of shoot within 2 years.

Pakistani film-maker came to do post in India. Had a very tough time in one of the post facilities here in Mumbai. Like they said his EDL didn't open. Then it opened but didn't match. His files were corrupt. He had the wrong format disk etc etc.

But he quietly put up with it thinking they were rough on him because he was a Pakistani!

Means new products are expected. An event in SF at 10.30pm India time may see new iPad, iPad retina, possibly new MacBook Pros and even a new MacPro specs revealed. Live telecast on Apple's site and on Apple TV.

I was recently on a shoot where I had to edit a film on location shot on digital format on Arri Alexa which included some songs and patch shots. I was shocked that no one asked me the roll numbers and directly went on shooting fresh from roll no. 001. The DIT simply copied the rush/data onto the drives to the editor. Late enough to notify the error so I hope the heaven saves the clips as I think the clips and the time codes will match with duplicated roll nos. and there will be a heavy duty trans-coding or camera meta data will come to the rescue. What say ?

October 22 at 4:03pm

Neil Sadwelkar Arre, give them my contact. If everyone did everything right with digital, how will I make money?

'Sulemani Keeda' showing at 5.45pm at Cinemax this evening. I'm going to be there in case anyone is dying to know, and has questions about the post-production of this film. Otherwise, just come and enjoy a sincere effort.

When I see the time spent - between the Director and the DoP - in making and taking great shots for a movie - I feel really bad, knowing that all of this stuff is going to be one day erased and lost forever.

After the release, and when the production need hard disks for the next movie, they reuse drives. Even shots from the 'Oscar hopefuls' have likely all been erased.

Except a handful of movie companies, no one has a long term data plan. Not because it costs big money to implement, but simply because they lack vision.

Previously there were picture tube monitors, now there are LED, LCDs etc. In PT monitors or TVs edges of picture tube are covered with the cabinet so the portion of frame is cropped automatically. Similarly the cameras also are having safety frame grid in the view finder but it captures the full frame. The same full frame captured by our non linear editing system. Now would like to ask, after editing, does that frame output should be cropped while taking the output on DVD or tape or any digital medium? If yes, how much?

Join Creative cloud means a membership of Rs 2,700 per month to use any or all Adobe's software simply by downloading them. Or Rs 1,000 per month if you want only one software -for e.g.. Photoshop, Premiere Pro, After Effects, anything.

There's no such thing as DI when you shoot with a digital camera - Red, Alexa, F65, Canon whatever. Because there's no intermediate stage. And everything is digital anyway. 'DI' is for film.

October 9 at 9:19am

Rishabh Rastogi this should be taught to all the new cinematographers, they keep on asking for DI in the post, evn aftr a 5d shoot

October 9, 2013 at 10:37am

Aditya Warrior I guess DI has now become a term for grading. Thats how most people use it. This tech corner of yours is a great eye opener for many including me. Thanks

October 9, 2013 at 11:47am

Sameer Shaikh one more misunderstanding like 24/25fps your pointed out last time..... and like directors still shout "Roll camera "even if there is no film rolling in camera

October 9, 2013 at 12:14pm

Anil Chaudhary color correction/grading was a core part traditional DI of film. I guess that's the reason of this misunderstanding. When a cinematographer is asking for a DI of digital he means coloring. And yes coloring may be needed for 5D or any other DSLR footage. Depends on the look you want.

FCP 7 shows the "Error out of Memory" or "General Error" window when rendering or exporting. Why?

Check if there's something (mov/picture) which is over 4096 pixels width or height. If there is, then in Preview or Photoshop scale it down to 72 dpi and anything less than 4000 pixels. Replace. Then try again.

Neil Sadwelkar With digital shooting, and digital release, it should have been a non-issue. But many are still keeping it alive. Out of ignorance and resistance and fear of change, mostly.

October 3, 2013 at 10:31am

Neil Sadwelkar With digital shooting, and digital release, it should have been a non-issue. But many are still keeping it alive. Out of ignorance and resistance and fear of change, mostly.

October 3, 2013 at 10:38am

Aditya Warrior True. The worst was when i saw a movie on tv and it was converted audio & video to 25. IT ran. i was aghast as i had heard it all the while right and this was just racing. Wonder how no one realised it. But what about the single screens that still run movie projectors? Also now can i shoot at 25 and project at 25?

October 3, 2013 at 10:42am

Neil Sadwelkar Just posted on this on my blog for the ignorants.

October 3, 2013 at 10:48am

Aditya Warrior cool

October 3 at 10:49am

Neil Sadwelkar Aditya Warrior when we make masters for movies for EU and UK, we routinely run them 4% fast to make them 25fps. In fact all over the western world 24fps film is made to 25fps video by speeding up. No one complains because they correct pitch, but they d...

2k, up to 200 fps, large sensor same as Alexa, records ProRes to CFast cards (like CF cards), and a price that some say will make you want to rethink buying a Canon C500 or Sony F5. Unless you have to have 4k. Because both the Arri girls - alexa and Amira - still don't do anywhere near 4k.

'Investment' in Marathi, releasing in a few theaters, not necessarily near you.

But please make the journey.

So all of you who clamour for a better cinema, who express dismay at the studio-multiplex nexus, who lament the lack of good post-production facilities for independent Indian cinema, and who feel despondent about regional cinema, particularly Marathi Cinema - from where incidentally this whole '100 years of Indian Cinema' thing began - go find where 'Investment' is running and watch it.

Whether you end up liking it or not, you will have voted with your wallet and made a promise that sensible cinema that is a mirror to society will continue to live. Else, you'll have to watch 'lungi dance, lungi dance' for the rest of your sad lives.

INVESTMENT

My film, our film ‘Investment ‘ is releasing on September 20th, a week from now.

It’s not a studio giant, but a small film made by my family and friends. It is written, directed by my father Ratnakar Matkari, who most of you know well through his writing and plays. It is his feature debut in the 74’th year of his age. It is co directed by yours truly.

The film has seen many festivals and has won the national award for the best Marathi feature film. To be honest, we were expecting that at that point, someone would come forward to support the film, mainly in terms of infrastructure, which we don’t have. Still, the films are made to find their audience, not just to attend the festivals, or win awards. So in an attempt to find the larger audience we know is out there, we are releasing the film in theatres. It’s a modest release, but a necessary step.

What we need for it’s success is a word of mouth and support on social media. I am therefore requesting all my fb friends to spread the word around. Feel free to share anything from my page, in fact I would encourage it.

for adding another dimension and direction to sound, and helping us appreciate silence as... silence,

for helping create a system that could record video on to magnetic tape (VTR or VCR),

for devising a method for billions of people to enjoy visuals with immersive sound in theatres

and for many other technical achievements, every 'sound' person will be forever indebted to Ray Dolby....

Sound pioneer Ray Dolby of Dolby Laboratories dies at 80

www.latimes.com

Ray Dolby, the inventor and engineer who founded Dolby Laboratories and pioneered noise-reducing and surround-sound technology widely used in the film and recording industries, has died in San Francisco at 80, the company announced Thursday.

September 13 at 9:49am

Mon Ty I met him last year in LA. He seemed in pretty good shape then. Great man. RIP

And, for the next Govt in power in India in 2014, please make loss of timecode during transcode a cognizable offense punishable with at least 3 years in prison and fine.

September 3 at 9:08pm

Vedansh Pandey Sir you must start a Centre For Film Technology. This will really help our country to make efficient use of technology to produce technically superior films and also help in the preservation of national archives. It will be a great service to the country which is otherwise not realizing the real worth of digital archives.

Even if you only use Photoshop and/or After Effects, getting the Creative Cloud at Rs 2,700 per month is a no-brainer. Pay once and its debited to your card every month. Like buying software with an EMI.

We know that Apple is working on an update to Final Cut Pro X – Apple's head of worldwide marketing Phil Shiller admitted as much in the WWDC keynote back in June. We've asked professional video pros and members of a Facebook group about Final Cut Pro to share their wishlist of the new Final Cut Pro...

I have said before... I'm tired. I really am. I started Oakley with $300 and then proceeded to put over 5,000 people to work in California. Against all odds, we passed RayBan in worldwide sales in 1996. I am so proud of what we accomplished at Oakley. Inventions wrapped in art. Thermonuclear Protect...

If you have a MacPro from 2009 or earlier, and you're trying to edit a full 100 min (or more) feature film shot on digital (Red/Alexa etc, and converted to HD ProRes), on FCP 7, then you're out of luck.

I've observed that generation of Mac computers was simply not designed to move files of that volume. So expect erratic performance, frequent crashes, projects unlinking by themselves, etc etc.

Time to move on to something else - Premiere Pro, Avid Media Composer, or FCP X. And time to stop cribbing. Apple will not support FCP 7, nor answer your complaints.

I mean, banks, insurance companies, hospitals, air traffic control, telecom companies, all of these guys have huge amounts of digital data. But still they manage to save it, or have to save it for decades, data that's more critical than the movies.

Films are mostly culture and entertainment, and data from them, is not live-saving nor life-threatening.

Its time the media business looked around. There really is a world outside the movies. And, its been digital for a while now. You guys are late to the party. Enjoy.

Amitabh Shukla Film is an asset like any other. Needs to be looked after and cared for in the same manner. For many, it's a cash cow - a golden goose that will lay an egg every few years. For others it's a piece of art, to be cherished for time to come. Needs a lot of passion to hang on to old stuff in the face Of mounting costs, hopefully there will a few people who will actually think about it.

July 18, 2013 at 5:50pm

Vedansh Pandey But sir my question is why do we want to hang onto old stuff? I think its the government's job. Why is that film is important and not the movie? Clearly it is the case of medium becoming the message. Film manufacturers became bankrupt because they spent all their money on propaganda. Probably they would have survived more if they would've worked for the betterment of stock and made it much more cheaper . Why aren't we doing objective analysis? One's nostalgia shouldn't stop medium from developing if that is the case. I will use a film camera when I am doing photography as a hobby but probably not when the producer's money is involved!

July 19, 2013 at 12:00am

Neil Sadwelkar Film died because the people that made it got lazy, and greedy. By the time they figured it out it was too late. Storing digital is costly, or not, depending on the value of what's being stored.

If what you're storing has a low value, and you want storage for cheap, or better still, for free, then you take your chances.

July 19, 2013 at 12:04am

Neil Sadwelkar Is what I tell any producer who approaches me for a 'perfect method' of storing his digital movie - rushes to final. I'm about to set up one such 'good, nearly ideal, but not perfect' method for one of India's largest film production facilities.

If they go with it, I hope to make it an example. If they don't go with it, I'll wait for 5 years and then make that an example.

Neil Sadwelkar Yes it is. But in India, we gave up the 'Inter' stage sometime in the nineties. We simply ran the cut neg to make prints. So, in our case the cut neg is probably all we have, of films from about 1980 onwards. (I could be wrong on the year). But definitely from 1995 or so, Inter was not used widely.

July 19, 2013 at 12:59am

Jay Dantara Vedansh Are you quoting Marshall Mcluhan ... "Medium is message" ? In any case, I think initial investment might be a big one but thats for all media isn't it? I bet film costs much more cause once it's been exposed it over. You could recycle your digital systems for as long as you need to.

July 19, 2013 at 12:58am

Vedansh Pandey Jay Thats what even I think! I'm for digital! I am not quoting him but actually criticizing him for putting the study of medium over message if you see the statement in that light.

July 19, 2013 at 1:26am

Jay Dantara Yeah his context was something else altogether

July 19, 2013 at 1:31am

Vedansh Pandey Just that. Film as a medium is quiet large. And I am not debating form over content but just arguing that romanticism for something undemocratic is unjust!

Who says sync sound can't be done on Mumbai streets. Watch NatGeo Adventure HD. The presenter is standing at various parts of Mumbai on the street talking to camera. We see no mikes in the frame, but we still hear him clearly. And even the people he speaks to.

What we did for the movie may not have contributed much in a creative sense, but we ensured that the movie existed and reached completion, by managing the digital data.

If anyone wants a data storage solution to store data as large as all the shots in Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (over 40,000 GB), let us know. We ensured not a single byte was lost in 1 year and 5 months - shoot to release. — with Sumeet Kamath and Sreeram Ramanathan.

If you find these hard to understand, then think carefully before upgrading. Else, promise yourselves that you'll take the time to learn them. Because this is the first time Avid has made a concerted effort to correctly manage colours on imported files.

Just met a 20 something editor who needed to do some sound match on an Avid. Let her use my Avid 6.5.2. She struggled for a bit and asked if I had a system with an earlier version because she was 'used to' ver 5.5, and didn't understand 'all these colours and new icons'.

What??

I mean, at 20-odd, don't you want all the latest toys?

June 26 at 9:39pm near Mumbai

Amitabh Shukla It happens Neil. Before avid put audio key frames in the old MC7, one did audio fade by putting an add-edit, setting a new clip level an then applying a dissolve over the cut to make it seem like a gentle fade. Shockingly I'm still seeing it a few timelines across studios. Very few people read the Read Me First! Smart Tool, another ignored value add in the new avids.

June 26, 2013 at 10:05pm

Amitabh Shukla Avid has been nice enough to retain all the old ways of doing things. Maybe that's what keep people in their comfort zone and doesn't make for the move to the new improved ways.

June 26 at 10:14pm via mobile

Sameer Shaikh it should not be a big problem actually switching from any version of avid from lower to higher (or vice-versa )...plus avid has completely customisable interface ... So if u don't like New things u can always customise and go back to old ways of worki...

Got yet another project where the 'tape name' of converted Red files are missing digits.

Editors, please keep tabs on the 'tape name' or 'Reel name' in Avid or FCP. If names are half or missing, its going to affect your social life and private life during DI.

Of course, it can be 'fixed in post'.

June 26 at 11:46am near Mumbai

Sameer Shaikh I ask them to keep burn-in option on if Redone files r converted in Red Rushes....is it possible to do same whn Red epic/Red mx files converted in applications such as Redcine?

June 26, 2013 at 11:55am

Neil Sadwelkar Burn-in is fine, but if the converted file does not have the reel name embedded, but it shows in the burn-in, that doesn't help when conforming.

June 26, 2013 at 1:10pm

Sameer Shaikh oh I thought it shows in burn-in ONLY IF it is embedded just like orher data.. anyways will double check it in my projects. thanks... it would be gr8 if if other applications hv option of burn in like Red rushes has.

June 26, 2013 at 2:17pm

Sameer Shaikh what does these 2 analogue terms actually mean in digital world?.. are they some kind of names assigned by cam to folders in which Red files reside?

June 26, 2013 at 2:16pm

Neil Sadwelkar 'Tape name' or 'Reel name' actually mane no sense in the 'post-film' or 'post-tape' era. Actually they indicate 'source', which can be the folder where the file resides. It just adds another layer of uniqueness to files since there are only 24 hours of timecode.

With Alexa footage, is it enough to get only the Apple ProRes 4444 files for editing? I mean, I don't need anything else to cut the film on my system, but are there not other files on the card - XMLs and so on - that are needed for other procedures down the line?

June 24 at 11:26am near Mumbai

Neil Sadwelkar Those XMLs carry camera data that's not embedded in the actual ProRes files so if you import the XMLs and relink to the ProRes files then that data is visible inside FCP. Colour temp, shutter angle, DoP-geek stuff.

ALE files are to enable embedded timecode inside Avid MC. But after AMA and FCP 5.5+, that's not necessary.

But, it's better to convert the log ProRes Alexa files to linear and smaller ProResLT or ProRes Proxy. ProRes4444 needs a rather fast HDD to play smoothly particularly in long sequences.

June 25, 2013 at 9:02am

Jabeen Merchant Thanks, Neil. Nobody so far has given me either XMLs or ALEs and when I asked, have been told that I don't need anything else. So I haven't been importing the metadata. Though I wouldn't mind doing it, I think it gives an editor a better grip on the entire post process. For the ProRes files, I agree that it's better to convert to smaller sizes for editing. But you know, there are so-called 'DITs' out there who know even less about this than me. Have been in a situation where the XMLs never got saved at all! Is it a total disaster if that happens for a feature film intended for proper release?

June 25, 2013 at 10:55am

Jabeen Merchant I'm no geek but this much is obvious even to me. When you use a data card on a camera, any camera small or big, you have to back up its contents in entirety. You do not open the sub folders and pull out some files while discarding others. There should be a way to make everyone follow this basic protocol!

June 25, 2013 at 11:09am

Amitabh Shukla Keeping a gun handy seems to do the trick

June 25, 2013 at 12:43pm

Neil Sadwelkar Actually if you import the XMLs into FCP and relink to ProRes files, and then go over columns in the browser, you'll find columns with information like colour temperature, shutter angle, ISO setting, and other camera parameters.

The new Adobe Creative Cloud is like an interest-free EMI based payment for all Adobe products on up to two computers at once. For only Rs 2,700 per month, or Rs 1,600 per month if you already own any Adobe suite. Or only Rs 1000 per month if you can show that you are a student or teacher.

So, for Rs 32,400 going down to Rs 12,000 for a whole year, you can get any or all Adobe software for an entire year - on two computers.

Depending on your life, you're guaranteed to spend more than that much on mobile phones, petrol, booze, or even eating out... in a year.

For the first time, in the '100 years' of Indian Cinema, we can now permanently get rid NG takes, muffed up lines, bad focus pulls, dolly/crane glitches, and wardrobe malfunctions right at the shoot stage when we shoot digital. Like they never happened.

Autodesk Smoke 2013 Ext 1 recently released, now adds support for Blackmagic cards. And support for Sony XAVC and RAW.

So if you have a well set up DaVinci Resolve system, just add Smoke software and you have both. Switch between finishing artist and colorist on the human side and you have a system that can do both. Add FCP 7, FCP X, and Avid to the same system and now you have a 'God system' that can do everything.

When a post house which has been contracted to do a complete DI for a feature film, and they try to import an EDL into their Baselight and the Baselight crashes, aren't they supposed to find a fix? Instead of simply returning the EDL back to the editor. Particularly when the same EDL imports fine into an Avid or an FCP.

With the coming of FCP X why have people forgotten that FCP 7 still continues to work. Premiere Pro with all its native workflow lacks some really significant features that FCP 7 has. Avid is a whole different interface and methodology to learn.

So if you are a one-man band doing docus, why not just spend the time learning FCP X. And keeping your FCP 7 for all the stuff that FCP X can't do.

Hitachi Enterprise class Ultrastar Drives are now made by Western Digital.

Hitachi is NO LONGER in the hard drive business. Both the Toshiba Deskstar drives & the Western Digital Ultrastar Drives are fine & there is NO quality difference between the Western Digital & Toshiba brands then there were when they were branded "Hitachi".

4k has developed stealthily and rapidly. And it's now real. From cameras and recorders 4k, to video I/O that's 4k, storage capable of playing 4k... But affordable monitors?? We are some way away on that yet.

But for some non-broadcast applications it makes sense to work 4k. By year end, 4k displays will be easily available. And once you see your production 4k... there's no going back.

As previously announced, Fujifilm has stopped production of the majority of Motion Picture Film products by March, 2013. We would like to thank you very much for your patronage during the long history of manufacture, sales and marketing of these products which will continue to be available until the...

In these days of files in files out, and nearly no tapes or answer prints, do we still need that sync beep 48 frames before and after?

Why not just make the audio and picture files same length and same timecode and frame rate.

If they line up they are in sync.

March 28, 2013 at 10:21am near Juhu

Roland Heap I'm seeing more and more films arriving as complete playouts - no reels in sight. But I'm absolutely in favour of keeping 48frame pops - it's a safe way of ensuring sync, and allows a reliable and easy way to check that nothing has gone wrong. We still...

March 28, 2013 at 2:15pm

Neil Sadwelkar Roland Heap and Amitabh Shukla. About the reels break-up. Yes, sure even in these non-film days, a 20 min reel break is recommended because unlike Avid or FCP, most 'high-end' systems like Smoke, Resolve, eQ etc behave better when working with smaller ...

March 30, 2013 at 9:32am

Sameer Shaikh @Neil....i hv also started putting 'burn-in framecount' and 'burn-in footage count' in video along with 'burn-in timecode' (actual positve count from FFOA to LFOA and negative count on start beep) whenever i output mov's from avid or fcp after reeling...

Anyone planning to invest in a new editing system, software, plug-ins, hardware, etc... the next two weeks are a 'waiting period'. NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) hosts one of the largest exhibition on film, TV, and broadcast equipment at Las Vegas. This year its 08-11 Apr.

Here, many manufacturers announce and introduce new products. Many expect a new Avid Media Composer 7, Premiere Pro 7 which will make Premiere more usable.

Apple is not known to announce new products or software at this show, but you never know.

The recently announced Canon EOS 100D/SL1 is one of the smallest DSLRs you can ever come across. It lacks some of the features and picture quality of the big gun 5D MkII, 7D etc, but it has autofocus during HD movie shooting.

And the other newly announced 700D has autofocus during HD movie and a LCD which can be turned up down left right both of which are lacking in the 5D 7D series.

If you have a digitally shot project to cut on Avid, and in the bin, you're seeing a blank source or tape column, or no source file mentioned, then beware. It's likely that whoever converted the original Alexa/Red/F65 files, neglected to include this data.

You can edit away, but when it comes to doing DI, your EDLs aren't going to link back to the source files.

So...

Before the tragedy, if I can get a look at the bins containing master clips, I now have scripts and methods to recreate this metadata and plug it in. I don't need to see the actual footage. Media offline bins will do.

The time in Mumbai

Mumbai

About Me

I live and work in Mumbai, India. I do a bit of editing, do consultations on editing, digital intermediates, and general post workflows.
And tinker with Mac, PC and Linux systems and all kind of gadgets.